Municipalities, communities, resort areas, airports, and maritime locations, etc. often need to melt snow after large snow storms. Such winter storms can disrupt travel, hinder commerce, and otherwise cause problems. Accordingly, such entities will often go to great lengths to remove the snow as soon as possible in order for transportation services to get back on track and moving.
One way to remove large amounts of snow is to use commercial snow melting devices. These devices are sometimes referred to as “snow melters.” There are currently known snow melters offered to the marketplace. Trecan, a Canadian company, offers snow melting products using a submersible combustion system. While efficient at melting snow, this process consists of firing a flame or series of flames through a diesel fired (in most cases) burner into a weir that is submerged in the melt tank or snow dump area. That flame and exhaust warm the in-tank water temperature to the pre-determined level, cause underwater turbulence which assists in melting the snow that has been dumped or blown into the melt tank. All of the exhaust particulates escape into the melt water exiting the snow melter and into the storm drains, settling ponds, etc. This snow-melting process is efficient but very dirty.
A second type of melt process available to the marketplace is a direct fired melter, which employs the use of a jet turbine engine fired directly at the snow as it is dumped into a holding tank or melt tank. This process is very efficient, but absolutely filthy, emitting volumes of exhaust carbons for long distances especially in a windy location, and covering autos, buildings, lawns in the surrounding areas of operation, etc. The operation of this type of melter has been banned in at least one large airport location, except in dire or emergency situations. This application requires enormous fuel consumption—roughly 700 gallons per hour (“GPH”).
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a new type of snow melter that is efficient to use, clean, portable, and inexpensive to use. Such a device is disclosed herein.